Baseball Rules

Play in LA-MV is governed by the Official Rules of Major League Baseball and the PONY Baseball Rules. LA-MV also has a set of Local Rules intended to make the games more fun for each age group, enhance safety, and deal with some local administrative issues.

Coaches: The surest way to avoid a confrontation with an umpire is to know the rules. And do check out Jim Booth's Rule Myths page on the e-teamz rules site, below. You’ll be amazed at all the things you were sure of that just ain’t so.

LA-MV PONY Local Rules

LA-MV General Rules apply to all divisions, and are designed to help maintain the condition of our playing fields, help ensure everyone's safety, and supplement the Good Neighbor Policy. Each Division also has a set of local rules, with summaries and details available below.

Local rules supercede the PONY national and Official Baseball Rules. For example, LA-MV has a “must slide” rule in Mustang and Bronco divisions, even though the national PONY rules do not.

Local Rules for Each Division

Ages 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 16U

Basepath 50 ft 50 ft 60 ft 70 ft 80 ft 90 ft

Pitching Mound 38 ft 38 ft 44 ft 48 ft 54 ft 60.5 ft

Innings 3 5 (Pinto-1), 6 (Pinto-2) 6 7 7 9

Pitching Start with tee; end Coach Pitch Coach Pitch; Pinto-2 ends Player Pitch Player Pitch Player Pitch Player Pitch Player Pitch

Teams Formed By Director Director Draft Draft Draft Director

Base Stealing No No Phased In Yes Yes Yes

Leadoffs No No M-1: Phased In from 1st & 2nd
M-2: 1st & 2nd Yes Yes Yes

Balk No No M1: Warnings only
M2: 1 Warning then enforced Yes Yes Yes

Dropped 3rd Strike No No No Yes Yes Yes

Breaking Pitches N/A No No No Yes Yes

Official Rules

	Official Baseball Rules, published by Major League Baseball.
	Official Baseball Rules published by the Baseball Almanac. This site is easier to read than the MLB site, and contains a wealth of additional baseball information.
	PONY Baseball Rules & Regulations (Updated for 2012). These define a set of extensions to the MLB rules to provide age-appropriate divisions with incremental levels of play. View the rulebook online using Adobe Flash, or download as a PDF.

Help With Rules

The following web sites can assist coaches, umpires, and parents in better understanding the rules of baseball.

Jim's Baseball Rules Answers. Extensive plain-English rules interpretations and explanations, written by veteran youth baseball and softball umpire Jim Booth. A lot of the Baseball Rules sections on other web sites are copied from here, often without attribution.

e-teamz Baseball Rules Page. Excellent page including a summary of baseball rules, frequently asked questions (FAQ), Jim Booth's Rule Myths page, and an umpire's helper.

Amateur Baseball Umpire Home Page. A "labor of love" web site containing a wealth of history, commentary, and umpiring advice from experienced amateur umpire and high school teacher Brent McLaren.

Rules For Other Baseball Organizations

The Club Teams and Post-Season "All Star" teams participate in tournaments hosted by organizations other than PONY Baseball. The following organizations provide their local rules online.

Our Post-Season teams will also sometimes play Little League teams. Little League’s rules can be purchased from the Little League Website. A summary is available on the Rutherford Little League Baseball Rules page.

High School baseball in Northern California is played by the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). NFHS publishes a series of rule books, case books, and guides for officials and managers that can be purchased through the NFHS Publications web site. Note there are substantial differences between NFHS and PONY Rules. For example, NFHS allows a designated hitter; PONY does only in Palomino Division.